1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiple cooling medium recovery apparatus used for recovering cooling mediums, such as a freon, gas etc., which are used, for example, in air conditioners of vehicles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In coolers or air conditioners for vehicles, for example, freon is used as a cooling medium for the cooling circuits. Freon, however, has a detrimental affect on the ozone layer surrounding the earth if it is discharged into the atmosphere. Therefore, when a vehicle is scrapped, or a car cooler or an air conditioner is repaired, it is necessary to prevent the discharge of the freon into the atmosphere. Moreover, it is also necessary to recover the freon from such cooling apparatuses, because production levels of freon is limited and the freon must be reused. In a conventional cooling medium recovery system, a gaseous cooling medium, such as freon gas, is extracted from a cooling apparatus and supplied to a cooling medium recovery apparatus. The gaseous cooling medium is cooled and liquefied by the cooling medium recovery apparatus, and the liquefied cooling medium is then recovered.
In such a conventional cooling medium recovery system, the recovery route for recovering the cooling medium is comprised of a single route. Consequently, only one kind of cooling medium can usually be recovered. However, in practice, many kinds of cooling mediums generally need to be recovered. Therefore, to prevent mixing of the different kinds of cooling mediums to be recovered, the apparatus must be cleaned before each recovery. Further, different kinds of cooling mediums cannot be simultaneously recovered in the conventional cooling medium recovery apparatus.